The invention relates generally to lock and release legs on a machine gun tripod while enabling level sweep. In particular, the invention relates to a traverse bar to secure a tripod's rear legs and support a traverse-and-elevation mechanism for a machine gun.
The United States Army (USA) and United States Marine Corps (USMC) have used the M122 machine gun tripod since about 1935, which provides a more stable and versatile platform for accurate and controlled angular sweep during successive firings than available by the bipod mounted to a standard M240 machine gun.
FIG. 1 shows an isometric view 100 of a conventional M122 tripod and its main components, including the tripod stand 110. A mounting head 120 includes a pintle bushing 125 into which a front yoke (not shown) can be inserted. A front leg 130 with front foot pad attaches to the head 120. The tripod 110 also includes a pair of rear legs extending from the head 120: rear starboard leg 140, and rear port leg 150. The starboard and port legs 140 and 150 connect together by a traverse bar 160 to maintain fixed angular separation.
A traverse-and-elevation (T&E) mechanism (not shown) attaches to the traverse bar 160 to adjust the firing direction of the gun M240. The conventional traverse bar 160 is typically straight and connects to each rear leg by a sleeve 170, which for the starboard leg 140 includes a clamp 175 to secure and release the traverse bar 160. A compass rose 180 indicates orientation, with the rightward longitudinal axis denoting forward direction, upward elevation axis denoting upward vertical direction, and diagonal lateral axis denoting port side direction. The conventional M122 tripod weighs 12.3 lb alone.